It’s not often that we review video games around here… mostly because there haven’t been a lot of new releases we feel are appropriately themed for our community. That all changes today.

In my neverending quest for activities that aren’t work, I recently signed up for PC Game Pass on Xbox. I confess that the original motivation was to play Disney Dreamlight Valley without dropping $30 on a game that is essentially in beta. (If you want to learn more about that particular game, ask me in Discord sometime.) When I reached the max of what was available in Dreamlight Valley, I started asking some online friends for Game Pass recommendations.

And someone on Urban Bohemian’s server mentioned a game called Tinykin. Their description intrigued me as they said: Tinykin is super cute. Hard to explain what kind of game it is. But a lot of ‘do this to unlock that’. And then you can get this thing. I’d best describe each level being a Rube Goldberg machine if you like that kind of puzzle-type thing. There are also collectibles and side quests, so quite a bit to do.

So I downloaded the game and fired it up. The story starts with a character named Milo. In the far future, Milo lives on a planet that is not Earth but where everyone says that they are the first humans. He doesn’t agree, so he sets off to find humanity’s origin planet, and he does! But when he arrives, something is wrong – he’s the size of a penny, and somehow, it’s the 1990s.

From here you deal with all the bugs, so if that is a thing that will bother you, you have been warned. The bugs have built a thriving civilization in a house, and it’s basically a giant obstacle course. The first bug you encounter is Ridmi, and he’s trying to build a suit for which he needs a bunch of parts from around the house. You basically collect them one room at a time, and you learn new skills with each room.

The biggest part of those skills lies within the title creatures – Tinykin. Apparently, they never did anything until Milo came along, and now they are his helpers. Ridmi has a cool method for teaching you how to use them. So far, I’ve been trained to use strong Tinykin that can move large objects in a group like ants, fire Tinykin that blow themselves up and light things on fire, and stacking Tinykin that become ladders for Milo to climb when the next point is too high for him to jump.

Each room has a main quest to acquire the part Ridmi needs and then a few subquests to acquire artifacts for another character. There’s also pollen you collect to get better and better glider bubbles. Milo can jump, use a bar of soap as a skateboard, and float down in a bubble. As you gain glider bubbles, you can glide longer distances.

The game is just adorable. I love the Tinykin and Milo and even the bugs are cute. The mechanics are simple, but they require some hand-eye coordination, and yes, it’s a lot of ‘do this to do that’ puzzles. I had to use a walkthrough guide on the first room because I was missing something… which turned out to be rather obvious when I read it. For the second room, I made it through everything without any outside help. That felt pretty good.

Oh, and I should mention that the quest in the first room involves the need to put a CD in a CD player… and the band’s name is The Tardigrades. I cannot wait to see what kind of role they play in later rooms because tardigrades are awesome.

Overall, I give this game a solid “go out and play it if it’s your thing”. I’m enjoying it and struggling to not just play the entire game through in one sitting.

Tinykin was developed by Splashteam and published by Tiny Build. It’s available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. We received no compensation for this review, and all Game Pass subscription fees were paid for by me.